KLEX

The Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival (KLEX)is a grassroots and artist-run international festival of experimental cinema and music. The event was founded in Malaysia back in 2010 by a cross-disciplinary group of local artists, and returns this year in its seventh edition as KLEX 2016: SPARK on November 24 – 27th, 2016. The festival aims to function as a platform to introduce and promote contemporary experimental cinema and music from the Asia region and beyond to a mostly Malaysian audience and to cultivate greater understanding, learning and creative exchange among local and international experimental art communities. Some of the festival components include: KLEX open programmes, international guest programmes, a non-camera film workshop, artist lectures, and many audio-visual and music performances.

In its run, KLEX has curated and showcased experimental films, videos, music and performances from all around the world – from all across Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, North and South America. The festival features KLEX Open Programmes with work selected from an open call, and International Guest Programmes that are curated by international artists invited by KLEX. In addition to the screening programmes, KLEX’s music and audio-visual performance programme has become a very integral part to the festival since 2011. In 2014, KLEX launched its music and performance lab series Serious Play Improv Lab (SPIL) to facilitate collaborations among musicians and performers through improvisation.

This year, the festival events will take place at several artist-run independent art spaces in Kuala Lumpur: Lostgens’ Contemporary Artspace, Findars and Da Huang Pictures. KLEX 2016 is made possible with the support of these venues, and also from the Goethe-Institut Malaysia, Next New Wave and the Korean Association of Film Education (KAFE). This year’s festival has received over 250 submissions via the open call, from Malaysia and other countries from around the world, including Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Iran, Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, the UK, USA, and Vietnam.

The theme of this year’s KLEX 2016 is “spark”. A spark, by definition, can start a light, a fire, an electric current, an interest, or a relationship. It is that very crucial moment when things ignite and simply “happen”. It could take the form of a few sparkling lights, or it could erupt into majestic fireworks. Just like how a person can’t clap with one hand only, it takes two to come into contact with one another in order to generate a spark. And when they come together and suddenly ignite, something unexpected happens, something that couldn’t have existed without them coming together in the first place – a truly magical moment!

Previously known as just an experimental film festival, in 2015 KLEX modified its official festival name to “Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival”, to broaden its scope and include experimental music in its programme. For KLEX founder Kok Siew Wai, music has always been an integral part of KLEX’s identity and vision. This year, the festival has a varied and splendid international line-up of experimental artists and musicians, including Asger Thomsen (Denmark), C-drÌk (Belgium/Germany), Charlotte Clermont (Canada), Dharma (Singapore), DJ Urine (France), Ikbal S. Lubys (Indonesia), Liu Fangyi (Taiwan), Nous perçons les oreilles (Canada), Paul Timings (New Zealand), Riar Rizaldi (Indonesia) and Yngel (Denmark).

In addition to the scheduled performances and screenings, there will also be a non-camera film workshop, which will teach different ways to create or destroy images on 16mm film, with clear leader film and found footage – all without the use of a camera! The participants will bring their own materials such as ink, pens, newspaper, plastic bags, hole punchers, and so on. The workshop will experiment with and push the possibilities of image-making with hand-drawn animations, abstract textures, and other analog techniques. Be sure to check out the KLEX website for more details on this year’s festival!